Declutter Your Practice: Useful Isn’t the Same as Using
I'm in the s-l-o-w, very slow process of decluttering my house.
If you know me, you know this has been on my need-to-do-badly list for years.
Recently, I came across decluttering expert Dana White on a podcast. She has two questions that I’ve found surprisingly useful:
- Where would I look for this if I wanted it?
- If I needed this item, would it ever occur to me that I already had one?
I wrote these questions down and put them on my wall. They help bypass all the emotional overthinking that can make decluttering so difficult.
But then I came across a third idea in her book that really stuck with me:
Something can be useful without you actually using it.
And as we're moving through this shifting season and preparing for fall and winter, I started thinking about how perfectly this applies to the practice room, too.
You can read more about this seasonal transition in Seasonal Practice: Autumn.
Useful doesn't always mean useful right now
As musicians, we collect a lot of things that are supposedly good for us.
Exercises. Etudes. Warm-ups. Scales. Gadgets. Mouthpieces. Ligatures. Practice routines.
And many of them really are useful.
But that doesn't necessarily mean they're useful for you, today.
So instead of asking only, "Is this a good exercise?", try asking:
"Am I actually using this in a way that serves what I need right now?"
For example:
- Am I just going through the motions of a "good warm-up," or can I identify which exercises are actually useful to me today?
- Are 45 minutes of long tones helping me, or am I using them to avoid learning the difficult middle section of Weber 1?
- Do I really need to play this legato etude today when my ensemble is rehearsing the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony and I need to work on tonguing?
- Am I practicing an exercise because it's "good for technique," even though I can't remember the last time I played it with real attention?
- Am I buying a new mouthpiece or ligature because I genuinely need it, or because I had a frustrating practice session and want to believe new equipment will magically fix it?
These questions aren't about throwing out everything you've ever learned.
They're about paying attention.
Declutter your practice, not your fundamentals
This is nuanced, of course.
If you're early in your development or studying with a wonderful teacher whose guidance you trust, listen to your teacher. Their experience and perspective matter.
But as you become more experienced, there's value in developing your own sense of what you need and when you need it.
Your practice doesn't have to be a museum of every useful exercise you've ever encountered.
It can be responsive.
Maybe this week you need scales.
Maybe today you need excerpts.
Maybe your warm-up needs to be five minutes instead of thirty because you have limited time and a performance tomorrow.
The question isn't:
"What should a good musician practice?"
It's:
"What does this musician need right now?"
That's a different quality of attention.
And when you stop automatically doing everything simply because it is useful, you create space for the things that actually matter.
What do you need right now?
The practice room can become another place where we accumulate.
More exercises. More repertoire. More advice. More equipment. More things we're convinced we should be doing.
But sometimes the next step isn't adding something.
It's clearing something away.
Ask yourself:
What do I need right now?
What do I need today?
What do I need this season?
Decluttering your practice isn't about doing less just for the sake of doing less.
It's about designing a practice that meets you where you actually are.
And when you clear some of that mental space, there's more room for good things to flow in.
Speaking of warm-ups, this is exactly why our upcoming class with Jenny Maclay is such a great pairing with this idea.
WARM UP CLASS — August 30, 12PM ET / 6PM CET
Jenny Maclay of Jenny Clarinet joins us for an hour on warm-ups. She's a soloist, recitalist, orchestral player, chamber musician, pedagogue, and content creator based in Paris.
Coming up:
⭐ IG Takeover: Behind the Scenes — August 27, all day
⭐ Masterclass: Building a Better Warm-Up Routine — August 30, 12PM ET / 6PM CET
The warm-up masterclass is a perfect pairing with everything above: foundations and scales are the material, but a real warm-up routine is what helps you use them intentionally, day after day.
Reply to the email if you'd like to attend, or join Club DCA for replays and fun club things.
One last thing:
"Find out who you are and do it on purpose."
— Dolly Parton
💛
Cheering for you,
Ixi & team DCA
p.s. For your house: 1. "Where would I look for this if I wanted it?" and 2. "If I needed this item would it ever occur to me that I already had one?" and for your practice: 3. "Is this useful and something I'll actually use?"
It's time to shine!! →
📔 THE CLARINET PLANNER Do you need a practice buddy? Look no further than the 4-month, fillable practice planner made just for clarinetists! Not only does it include practice and habit tracking, but it includes exercises, practice tips, goal setting help & more! (15 left). Go to the → Clarinet Planner
📖 PRACTICE WITH PURPOSE PLANNER 6-month planner for the whole musician, organized around a 3-section Roadmap followed by the Dashboard, all the blank monthly and weekly spreads, plus templates. Built to be infrastructure, in a form quiet enough to feel like sanctuary. Click for the → Purpose Planner
📘 THE FOUNDATIONS PACKET A daily regimen for conditioning with over 20 pages walking you through the fundamentals stack (and why it matters) Get the → Foundations Packet
🎯 THE 28-DAY SCALE RESET 28 days of downloadable packets in every key plus 4 non-major/minor packets (chromatic, whole tone, improvisation, and a flash card set) and 3 bonus video lessons. Join the → 28-DAY SCALE RESET
⭐️ FREE RESOURCES Along with planners and packets, here are some freebies that focus in on a few good topics. Help yourself to → Resources
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